From the article: When Should I Plant My Spring Blooming Bulbs?
Sooner or later we all buy more spring blooming bulbs than we can get planted. What have you done to get your bulbs in the ground late in the season or to over-winter them some other way? Share Your Experience
What I do with bulbs...
- I plant them. Maybe they won't bloom this year, but hopefully they will next year. I don't understand this phenomenon of the ground freezing. I've never seen it happen!
- —Guest Lynn Marie
Maybe the Ground is not Too Frozen
- Despite the ground being frozen, I am hoping that I can use an electric drill or even my tiller to dig into it! We will see and otherwise I will just have to try some other tricks for the tulips and daffodils. I live in Northern Virginia, by the way. I’ll let you know in the Spring.
- —GeorgeW6
Cover with leaves!
- This won't work this Spring but next winter, if you find that the ground has fronzen before you get the bulbs in the ground, cover them with a very deep pile of leaves. This only works with critter resistant bulbs though....keep those tulips inside in a refrigerator or in potting soil in a cold garage. It has worked for me and then after they bloom, plant them where you want them!
- —Guest gardenaide
Let them bloom indoors
- I took them from the garage and and put them in a wide mouthed container with river rocks and pepples, added water up to the roots and now they are growing nicely on the table in the sun. Should be fully up by Spring!
- —darkebo
Put them in pots or wait for a thaw
- I took advantage of Walmart half price bulb sale in mid Dec. with over a foot of snow on the ground. I figured if it didn't warm up enough for the snow to melt I'd just put them in pots. Luckily for me we got a thaw and I found the ground wasn't frozen so I just planted them on 12-15. You can plant bulbs in pots. Check internet for how to...
- —Brander2
Unplanted bulbs
- Put them in a big pot with soil and have them bloom in the pot in the spring. You can leave the pot in the garage or in a sheltered spot outside.
- —Guest NOrth Country Maturing Gardener
Temporary fix for fall bulbs
- I put them in the refrigerator until there's a day I can dig (above freezing) in Dec. or Jan. Some years there's no way to do that. Then, plant them in a pot and keep them in your garage, don't, water them with snow, don't let the bulb freeze.
- —Guest Bonnie
Force Them
- Any late arriving or other bulbs I get after the ground is frozen I use for indoor bulb forcing - just pot 'em up, refriegerate for 8 weeks or so, and voila - spring blooms indoors in deep winter.
- —Guest WashingtonGardener
What to do with unplanted bulbs.
- A friend told me to just put them in a paper bag and keep them in the back of the refridgerator until Spring. I did, and it worked.
- —Guest mphillips
What do you do with unplanted bulbd?
- After ground froze I looked for a wide shallow depression. Placed bulbs in it and covered with 50 pound bag of topsoil. Better than wasting them and I can move them next year.
- —Winesap3
